Gender stereotyping tackled in Maple Ridge author’s first children’s book

A children’s book about gender stereotyping is a first for Maple Ridge author Pamela Melon, who received praise from one of the largest online internet book review sites.

The Face Painter’s Mirror is about a little boy and girl who go to a festival and are excited to have their faces painted. Ryder wants a magical rainbow unicorn painted on his face, while Amber wants a T-Rex.

However, the face painter asks to surprise them and instead paints Ryder’s face as a shark and Amber’s as a butterfly.

The two children, painted with these new personalities, find it hard to play together and be friends.

So they return to the face painter, and again their faces are painted in the same gender-specific way.

Finally, during their third attempt to have their faces painted the way they want, the face painter remembers a time when she was told she could not like something, and she then agrees to paint their faces how they would like.

The story was inspired by a situation that happened with the author’s eldest son, and Melon, an early childhood educator, decided to tackle the issues of how gender stereotyping still exists in society and how often children’s opinions and voices are dismissed by both writing and illustrating her book.

“I’m an early childhood educator so I’ve always really liked the literature side of that, just sharing stories with kids,” Melon explained.

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Melon has always enjoyed drawing and painting as well, and so when she wrote the story she knew she wanted to also illustrate it. The first-time illustrator purchased some digital art equipment, practiced a bit,

Melon wrote The Face Painter’s Mirror in 2019 and illustrated it earlier this year. It was published in October.

It got a five star review from Devorah Lloyd for Reader’s Favorite, one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the internet – winning “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors, in addition to being fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau A+ rating.

Currently the author is translating the book into Spanish along with tweaking other children’s stories she is working on.

The Face Painter’s Mirror can be purchased at readersfavorite.com/book-review/the-face-painters-mirror where readers can also connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.